Nov 8, 2011

Refugees in Egypt, a forgotten issue!

In Egypt, several issues do not have enough attention. Refugee
issues in Egypt are not usually publicly discussed and even if this happens, it
hardly goes in the right direction.

Due to its position, Egypt receives a lot of refugees and
asylum seekers who aim to stay in Egypt or only to transit until they leave to
another country. Those refugees and asylum seekers leave their countries for various reasons, such as fleeing war and armed conflict, political instability or prosecution. They come from different directions; the majority
of which come from Sudan followed by Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea and other
countries. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR),
there are approximately 40,000 registered refugees in the country, from 38
different nationalities. Not all refugees are registered with UNHCR however, so
the real number is very much higher and may reach millions.

Recently, Youm 7 newspaper carried a daring and shocking investigation in Sinai and revealed the horrors that
refugees are subjected to there. The investigation shed light on the African
refugees who seek to enter Israel through Sinai are subjected to torture, rape and killings by organized criminal groups in Sinai. Those criminals engage in organs trafficking taken from the refugees’ bodies. The details and images were really
harrowing and definitely caused a controversy.

Unfortunately, we have a bad history in dealing with
refugees in Egypt. Refugees leave their countries running away from wars, prosecution or dire economic conditions to face other hardships in Egypt. Egypt
has signed 1951 Refugee Convention, but it had reservations and there’s a de facto ban on accessing employment and formal education for refugees. Obviously, Egypt
already has a struggling economy and high unemployment rate which makes it
hard for our government to provide services to refugees.

This tragic situation cannot continue any longer. Immediate action must be taken from the government to stop those grave violations. It's horrible that those men, women and children flee their country to save their lives and find themselves in equally dangerous conditions or worse.More attention should be directed to refugees and their situation to end the dire condition that they suffer from.

Yes, Mai. You hit the core of the issue. They're poor, they mostly ran away from authoritarian dictatorships, any nobody real cares about them. They're not even treated as 2nd class citizen, they're not treated as humans at all!

Thank you for informing us about this tragedy.We hope that the coming days witness an honest redefinition of the value of the human being.We hate to learn that refugees coming to our country fleeing from threatening situations,fail to find the security,comfort and confidence in our government.Our only hope is that the future holds a better tomorrow for everyone ,whether citizens,or refugees.

Your article doesn't mention main problem! This is Isreal fault. They encourage africans to cross Egypt to destabilize Egypt. If Jews did not mislead africans about good life in Isreal they would not cross Egypt! You do not see africans going to any arab country because africans know life in any arab country is not good for them. If Isreal did this also there would be no problem.

The last comment is not only factually incorrect but also reeks of antisemitism. Israel or Jews do not mislead refugees and do not encourage African asylum seekers to flee into Egypt to destabilize it. Israel/Jews also do not encourage the Sudanese regimes to genocide its population and cause it to flee, or encourage the Eritrean regime to subject its people to compulsory open-ended military service/ slavery, causing them to flee as well.As for the concrete factual errors:1. There are numerous African refugees in Arab countries, namely Egypt, Yemen, Sudan (which receives refugees from Eritrea), and Saudi Arabia. Their lives are very difficult there, but it's better than the risks they face at home.2. Israel does not welcome the refugees crossing its borders in any way, and does a lot to prevent more from coming. Israel is constructing a wall on the border with Egypt to prevent the crossing, building a huge open-air prison that will indefinitely hold 10,000 asylum seekers, and now the govt is attempting to pass a law that would criminalize all asylum seekers, allowing the state to jail them for three years up to life in prison. These laws and measures contradict international law, of course, but it doesn't stop Israel because it wishes very much to prevent the entry of any more African refugees.Before spreading more of your antisemitic theories, I advise you to actually read about the subject before embarrassing yourself any further.

the last comment i agree with u completely but i dont think such a law will see the light..anyway the problem is that Egypt kill refugee crossing the border towards israel, and israel doesnt kill any refugee,,egypt in one month kill about 80 refugee or seek asylam trying to go to israel in 2010..